This set assembles the nine titles form Ahmed’s first album (1973), plus the A and B sides of his first single (1971). It’s enough to show why this former shoe-shine boy who got his start standing in for the absent singer at a bar where he worked as a handyman, went on to become one of Ethiopia’s most enduring and beloved vocal stars. The1971 songs find Ahmed flogging 4/4 time and imitating American rock ‘n roll and funk. But the later material is far more subtle and interesting, full of dark modalities, hypnotic 6/8 rhythms layered with drones and evocative ostinattos, and best of all, an intense, smoldering voice that at once encompasses the passionate exuberance of the era, and the horrifying sadness to come. Volume 7, also Ahmed, is a classic, but to my ear, his sound never really surpasses these first recordings.